Shield for headlights



F. J. NEWTON.

SHIELD FOR HEADLIGHTo.

APPLlCATlON HLED JAN. n. 1918.

72361 7252 1 Fun: N l Z8711 2 MEETS-SHEET l- Patented June 22, 1920.

"F2 L NEWTON. SHiELD FOR HEADLIGHTS. jPPLICATIUNfILED JAN.1T.1918. 1,344,594. PatentedJune 22, 1920.

' 2 SHETSSHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK J. NEWTON, OF SANDWICH, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ERWIN E. WALLACE, 0F SANDWICH, ILLINOIS.

SHIELD FOB HEADLIGHTS.

Application filed January 17, 1918. Serial No. 212,162.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK J. NEWTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sandwich in the county of Dekalb and State of lllinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Shields for Headlights, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawin s, forming a part of this specification.

31y invention relates to shields for headlights, and has to do more particularly with shields or protecting devices for use in connection with electric lamps or bulbs in headlights such as are commonly employed on automobiles; one of the principal objects being to provide a shield which, although permitting an unobstructed projection of the intense light rays toward the ground, is of such shape and construction as to intercept these intense rays and prevent the projection of a blinding glare into an approachin drivers eyes.

n a device of this character, it is desirable to have the least interception to the rays effective for lightin up the ground, but the height of the blinding glare must be kept below the approaching drivers eyes. To this end, I provide a Hat body portion, which lies in a horizontal plane over the top part of the bulb or lamp and has an inclined apron at'its forward end which extends downwardly a suflicient extent to prevent the direct projection of the rays from the filament above a horizontal plane through the headlight.

A further object of my invention is to provide a shield which permits the emanation of light rays toward the top of the reflector sufliciently to give a rounded appearance to the front of the headlight when the lamp is lighted, but of such construction that these rays do not throw a blinding glare high enough to catch the eyes of an approaching driver.

A further object of m invention is to provide a device of this c aracter which is light, simple, and neat, and which is'inexpensive to manufacture and may be readily applied to existing headlights without the use of any special attachments.

For a better understanding of my invention, reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters Which Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section showing my improved shield applied to an electric headli ht bulb and reflector;

Fig. 2 is a p on view of the shield applied to a ulb' Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the preferred form of my invention;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section along the lin1g 44 of Fig. 3; and

ig. llfilalt having eferring now more particularly to the referred form of my invention as shown in lgS. 1 to 5, it comprises a flat body portion 10 substantially oval in shape, as shown in F 1g. 2, and having a forwardly projecting inclined apron 11 extendin downwardly to a point substantially in horizontal alinement with the center of the bulb. In order to secure the shield to the lamp, I preferably provide a rear portion 16 having an opening 17 therethrough which is ada ted to one rcle the shank or plug of the ulb, as in icated in Figs. 1 and 2, the lower part of the portion 16 having two or more spring fingers 18 adap) ed to engage the lower portion of the bul the ends of these fin are 18 being preferably provided with yiel ing elements 19 preferably in the form'of rubber tips, which are ada ted to frictionally engage the bulb and hold the shield in proper position after being adjusted.

The body portion 10 and front apron 11 are adapted to intercept the rays which emanate from the top of the bulb, so that the only effective rays are thrown forwardly and toward the ground. However, unless certain rays are permitted to pro'ect toward the top of the reflector, the re ector does not give a nice, rounded appearance from a distance, and therefore I provide a central opening 14 in the body portion, which permits the emanation of certain light rays toward the top of the reflector, but at the forwardend of this opening'14 an inclined,

upwardly-extending, rearwardly-projecting portion 12 is provi ed being shaped to prevent the fprojection of direct rays of light from the lament of the bulb upwardly and beyond the edge of the reflector. I

Although this 0 ening 14 alone is efi'ective to some extent, have found that, to get.

5 is a front view of an electric headmy invention applied thereto.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patgnted Jun 22, 1920 indicate like parts, and his the best results from this opening 14, the provision of diverging elements 15 revents the pro'ection of those rays whici would reflect rom the upper portion of the reflector sidewise into an a preaching drivers eyes. This divergence cl these elements 15, I have found from experiment, causes a sort of closin up of the rays, and, although a certain light is produced at the upper part of the reflector, it is not such a blinding glare as will be harmful. These elements 15 are preferably connected at their rear ends to a shielding portion 22, which extends forwardlv from the rear edge of the opening 14, this portion 22 being also effective to prevent a harmful glare from the up er part of the reflector.

hese elements 15 serve a double purpose, in that they also act as spring fingers to grasp the upper part of the bulb, so that by the action of the upper and lower spring fingers, together with the rear portion of the shield, the device is firmly held in po sition.

Referring again to the apron 11, it will be noted that the side edges 21 are inclined, gradually approaching the fiat part of the body portion 10 and being of such shape that they shield the filament, or intercept the rays emanating therefrom and prevent the projection of these rays into an approaching drivers eyes. These inclined edges 21 extend only far enough to intercept the rays from the lamp, this shape being obtained because the angle of vision of the approaching driver is gradually changing; that is, when a driver is several. hundred yards from the headlight, the angle of vision is but a few degrees above the horizontal plane, so that, in. order to )I'G- vent the glare from having a harmful c. ect, the apron 11 is brought down far enough to cover the filament, but it will be apparcut that as the driver approaches the head light, the angle of vision changes and these fore it is not necessary to continue the edge 21 on a horizontal plane with the filament. Therefore, I gradually incline the edge 2i. so that it extends just for enough to inter cept the ra s, but every bit of unnecessary metal is eliminated. Thus, the shield is iade as light as possible.

In the use of the device it is plai-cd in position upon the bulb, as shown in Fig. .1, and the bulb is then inserted into the reflector, as shown in Fig. I, after \Vllll'll lhc shield is adjusted so that llulower edge of the apron is sid tantially in alincnicnl with the lilalu ut and lhc lamp properly adjust ed in. the reflector 20. This rcllcctor till is preferably of the parabolic type, although my invention is not limited to any pa ticular design of reflector. \Vilh the bulb prop erlv adjusted in or behind the focus of lhc re rtor and the shield properly adjusted upon the bulb, the intense rays of the light are projected forwardly and not above a horizontal plane through the bulb, so that the blinding glare, althou h projected upon the road in front of t e car, does not extend upwardly n o the approaching drivers eyes. The opening 14, however, in the top of the body portion. permits sutlicient emanation of light to give a nice, rounded appearance to the reflector when seen from a distance; but, as already described, the presence of the diverging elements l5 prevents a sidewise projection of rays from the upper portion of the reflector, and has a. peculiar effect of sort of closing up the rays reflected from the upper part 0 the headlight as the approaching driver gradually nears the car.

In the construction of my invention I preferably employ metal, the device being formed out of sheet metal and finished with an aluminum paint. However, other material ma be used if desired.

Fort ie purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown a single preferred form, but it is to be understood that I contemplate making mv invention in vanious sizes and to suit different types of lamps and reflectors. It is also to be understood that my invention is not limited to the precise form illustrated and described, but that various changes and modifications may be made; therefore, I do not desire to be limited to the precise construction shown and described, but aim to cover all that which comes within the spirit and scope of the ap )ended claims.

Vhat I claim as new andv desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A shield for headlights comprising a flat body portion horizontally positioned over the bulb, an inclined apron at the front end of the body portion adapted to extend over the front of the bulb, a central opening in the body portion over the bull). an inclined apron extending rearwardly at the forward end of the opening so as to limit the forward angle of direct cnianalion of rays, and means for securing the shield in position.

2. An integral sheet metal shi ld for headlights comprising a flat-like slightly rounded body portion adapted to be positioned over the top a l the bulb and having a central opening at the top of l l' shield so as to not down over till, lmih and permit extension thcril' l lll' fij Gi shield, a. lo!" wardly extending apron For the. shield so as to prevent cmvssivr upward emanation of light rays, andl a second. apron rcarwardly cxtendlng and forming an edge of the upper opening so as to limit, lhc angle of direct 'lorwu z'd emanation ol" light rays.

ii. A shiold or head-lights w'nnprisiug a body portion, aptcd to be positioned over the top of the bulb and having a central opening to permit emanation of the light rays upwardly toward the reflector, a yielding holding element extending forward from the rear edge of the opening, and a second yielding holding element formed on the body portion, said holding elements engaging the top and bottom of the bulb to retain the body portion in any desired po sition on the bulb.

4. A shield for head-lights comprising a body portion adapted to be positioned over the top of the bulb and having a central opening to permit emanation of the light rays upwardly toward the reflector, and converging spring lingers located within the op ning and joined at the rear edge thereof.

a. A shield for head-li hts comprising a body portion adapted to positioned over the top of the bulb and having a central opening to permit emanation of the light rays upwardly toward the reflector, and two spring fingers located within the opening and positioned to prevent light rays from being reflected sidewise into an approaching drivers eyes.

6. A shield for head-light bulbs comprising a flat body portion horizontally positioned above the bulb and having an inclined apron at its forward end, said body portion also having a central opening there- 1n, fingers on said body portion engaging the underside of the bulb, and spring fingers positioned within the opening adapted to grasp the top of the bulb.

7. A shield for head-light bulbs comprising a Hat body portion horizontally positioned above the bulb and having an inclined apron at its forward end extendin downwardly substantially to the center 0 the bulb and spring lingers extending from the body portion and adapted to grasp the bulb to hold the shield.

8. The combination with a reflector and a light bulb therefor, of a shield comprising an oral body portion positioned above the bulb and having an inclined apron at its forward end extending downwardly into substantial alinement with the filament, the side edges of the apron'forming a gradual incline so as to just prevent the projection of the direet rays into a drivers eyes as he approaches.

in witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 31st day of December, A. D 15117.

FRANK J. NEWTON. 

